Apollo Program Lecture Lantern Slides

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of 160 Apollo era presentation lantern slides, 3.25 by 4 inch mounts as well as a few 35 mm slides. These slides were presumedly used by NASA as part of informational briefings given to upper management. The slides include the following: photographs of the moon, NASA facilities, rockets and equipment; charts, including NASA organizational charts and charts highlighting Apollo Program objectives and lunar site selection status; space-themed cartoons; maps showing NASA facilities; and artist concepts of the anticipated missions, including entering and leaving lunar orbit, the Lunar Excursion Module on the moon, reentering into Earth atmosphere, and splashdown.

Biographical / Historical

The Apollo program began as part of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten-year plan from 1959, which planned for lunar exploration sometime in the 1970s. Following President Kennedy's speech of 25 May 1961, which called for a lunar landing by the end of 1969, NASA accelerated its development scheme accordingly. Flights began in November 1967 with the unmanned launches of Apollos 4, 5, and 6. The first manned launch occurred in October 1968 with Apollo 7. Apollo 8 (21 Dec - 27 Dec 1968) was the first manned mission to orbit the moon. Apollos 9 (3 Mar - 13 Mar 1969) and 10 (18 May -26 may 1969) tested the lunar module in Earth and Lunar orbit respectively. Apollo 11 (16 Jul - 24 Jul 1969) was the first manned craft to land on the moon, followed by Apollos 12 (14 Nov - 24 Nov 1969), 14 (31 Jan - 9 Feb 1971), 15 (26 Jul - 7 Aug 1971), 16 (16 Apr - 27 Apr 1972), and 17 (7 Dec - 19 Dec 1972). Apollo 13 (11 Apr - 17 Apr 1970) was planned as a lunar landing mission, but an explosion in the Apollo Service Module caused the mission to be aborted. In all 12 men landed on the moon and carried out numerous scientific experiments and returned more than 837 pounds of lunar soil for analysis.